The most prominent sustainable and partially modular Fairphone 3 is now being discontinued after two years on the market.
In the mobile space, there are very few smartphones that offer and even promote user replacement parts and servicing. Launching back in 2019, the Fairphone 3 was promised five years of software and hardware support. The firm has confirmed in a blog post that the Fairphone 3 is now being discontinued in part due to component shortages with the more recent Fairphone 3+ becoming the sole device from the Dutch OEM.
A modest device by any stretch of the imagination, the Fairphone 3 packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 chipset, 4GB of RAM, and has a 5.65-inch FHD+ display. Despite being fairly low-end and discontinued, the Fairphone 3 will still be eligible for further software updates and hardware support with the Android 11 update still on schedule for a 2022 release. Because of the modular nature of the device, you’ll still be able to update or upgrade internal components. Given the Fairphone 3 received a 10/10 repairability rating from iFixit, we’d expect hardware holdouts to be just fine with the promised OEM support.
While we are ending the sale of the Fairphone 3, it does not mean it’s the end of its life! In fact, because of our unique approach for our Android phones, you can still upgrade your phone with camera modules and spare parts. We are also planning to update the Fairphone 3 to Android 11 in 2022.
Given that the previous generation Fairphone 2, which was released back in 2015, was updated to Android Pie earlier, it’s clear that the Fairphone 3 is a genuine sustainability champion. Like many discontinued devices, you can always extend the lifespan of the Fairphone 3 with third-party ROMs like LineageOS — which is supported as of version 17.1 based upon Android 10.
It’s also worth noting that while the Fairphone 3+ is available, it is also in limited supply due to the aforementioned component shortage. Fairphone offered some clarity on the situation stating that only the Fairphone 3 is discontinued at present. The upgraded device comes with a 48-megapixel camera, upgraded selfie sensor, and slightly improved data transfer rates.
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